“It’s not the hours you put in your work that counts, it’s the work you put in the hours.” – Sam Ewing
Results do matter. Then there are people who say “quantity first” or “quality first.” They are both right. Especially when it comes to business or creativity (art) quantity does come first and with that comes the quality.
“Picasso’s oeuvre includes more than 1,800 paintings, 1,200 sculptures, 2,800 ceramics, and 12,000 drawings, not to mention prints, rugs, and tapestries— only a fraction of which have garnered acclaim.” – Adam Grant, Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World
Well Picasso is an example here, yet you could pick almost any famous artist. Because those who succeed with little output and some masterpieces are the exception rather than the rule. The conclusion is if we look at the probabilities that the highest originality correlates with the volume of the output.
Both quantity and quality matter. Yet if you want the probabilities to be with you, you do it through the quantity. Probabilities in this life is like the force in the Star Wars. You would like the probabilities to be with you.
At first the quantity is worthy of worship. It’s only when we’ve learned some rudimental basics and notice that we are banging our heads to the walls that we can start to think a bit about in terms of quality. First we must become an object to learn anything. Later on then we can start to switch between applying what we have learned and the learning itself.
We should keep on doing a lot precisely because of learning and renewal. Learning is the core of creativity. And the learning happens through the function of quantity.
Janne Piiroinen 